In Teaching Tolerance, Include Gays

I am writing in response to the Aug. 20 letter ``Teach Children About Tolerance.''

I mostly agree with the letter. However, I'm sure that without even knowing it, the writer showed some of what the problem is in regard to teaching children tolerance.

The writer said, ``Race, creed and color should not be an issue in our free country. People should be judged only by their character. Children can be taught that we should treat all others as fellow human beings.''

With all the anti-gay rhetoric and anti-gay violence in this country, why did the writer not mention sexual orientation?

Has the death of Matthew Shepard taught us nothing?

When we teach children in school about tolerance, we talk about race, creed or color. We rarely include sexual orientation and when we do, some construe it as ``promoting the gay lifestyle.''

I am tired of that. We need to get over it and openly tell children that everyone in society has the same rights and should be treated with the same respect and dignity as everyone else.

When we exclude sexual orientation from a curriculum dealing with tolerance, we send a message to children. The message is that gay people are not worthy of the same respect everyone else should get, and they deserve what is coming to them. Is that the kind of society we want to live in?

As for myself, I'm not interested in promoting any lifestyle and I couldn't care less if people approve of me or not.

Children will form their own opinions about gay people, and I suppose that the majority of them will grow up disliking or even hating gay people (it is, after all, what society is teaching them).

However, that doesn't mean it has to turn into a violent confrontation. When talking about tolerance in our schools, sexual orientation must be included. If it isn't, then we are condoning violence against gay people.